DISCLAIMER: I don't own The OC or its characters.

Author's notes: Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your reviews! They inspire me to continue writing! I hope you like this chapter, although I'll admit that you might find Kirsten a bit unlikable and Carter a bit more likeable. Hmm. But don't worry, I promise Kandy will work everything out! Let me know what you think!

Ring!

Awaken out of a deep sleep, Kirsten suddenly jumped as her hand searched the nightstand for the phone with her eyes still closed. She accidentally knocked over the bottle of wine she was drinking last night, hitting the ground with a loud slam. Kirsten sighed. Loud noises weren't particularly amusing to wake up to. Especially not this morning. She opened her eyes and noticed that ironically, the bottle didn't break. She placed the bottle right side up and glanced at the alarm clock as she answered the phone. It was already 7:00. How was it that she didn't here the alarm go off at 6:00?

"Hello?" she said a bit crankily.

"Honey? How are you?"

Kirsten paused, remembering the events of last night. "Good, I'm good," she lied, trying not only to cover up last night, but her groggy morning voice as well.

"Good. How was the alarm? Were you able to get out of bed without me?" Sandy said with a small laugh. He was referring to the fact that every morning he controlled the alarm clock since he was the first one to get up and he always let Kirsten snooze through the alarm, waking her up by a gentle kiss on her forehead with a small nudge, saying "Come on honey, you don't want to be late for work."

This was definitely not one of those mornings.

"Yeah, the alarm was fine," Kirsten said rubbing her head, thinking to herself, "Crap, a hangover."

"But I'm sure its better when I wake you up, right?" Sandy said smiling.

"Right," Kirsten replied. She needed to change the subject because she felt guilty talking about how sweetly Sandy wakes her up every morning after what she did last night. She felt very uncomfortable. Changing the subject, she said, "How are the boys?"

"They're fine. Loving Miami. We're getting ready to head to Nana's retirement community now. I'll tell them to call you tonight."

"Yeah, do that. So I'll talk to you tonight, too?"

"Yeah. I love you."

"I love you, too," Kirsten replied awkwardly. She better start saying "I love you" a lot more often if she planned on telling Sandy where her mind had been the past few weeks.

After hanging up, Kirsten put her hands on her temples, thinking about everything...how crappy she felt with this hangover…how nice Sandy was being to her and how upset he'd be if he found out what she confessed to Carter…her and Sandy's marriage…Carter…the kiss last night…if she still had feelings for Carter.

She sighed, eventually getting herself out of bed and making her way to the shower. When she came out, she noticed she had a voice mail on her phone. It was Carter, wondering where she was. She looked at her watch, 8:30, yeah, she was late, but in no rush to get to work.

15 minutes later, Kirsten slowly walked into the office nervously. She didn't know how she was going to act around Carter. She'd have to decide quickly though, because she was greeted by him sitting in her office waiting for her.

"Rough morning?" he asked.

Kirsten just nodded, unsure of what to say after last night.

"I started working on the layout for the new cover and told Julie to call the photographer. Now I'm going to go see how the writers are coming along with the pieces."

"Carter, wait," Kirsten said as he started to head for the door.

"Kirsten, we don't need to talk about last night right now, I know it must be awkward for you." he said turning around.

"Yeah, a lot more awkward for me than it is for you," Kirsten said sarcastically.

Carter just stared at her, trying to figure out what was going through her mind. She was always so well-put together. Not today. Her hair was disheveled and her eyes were bloodshot. She looked like she needed some sleep.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm just having a really bad day."

"Maybe you should take the day off, hmm? I can handle things around here. I could stop by tonight and fill you in on the day's events."

This appealed to Kirsten as she didn't feel like facing the awkwardness right now, nor did she feel like working with a hangover. "You sure?"

"Yeah, it'll be fine. Go home and get some rest," Carter said as he ushered her out, putting his hands on the small of her back.

Kirsten got woozy when she felt his hands touch her. She wasn't sure if it was awkwardness or attraction. Or both.

"I'll see you later," Carter replied smiling as Kirsten left the office.

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Kirsten felt a lot better after going home and getting some sleep. She cleaned the mess left in the kitchen from the night before and set out some wine, cheese, and crackers for Carter and herself. She wasn't sure what she was going to say to him about last night, let alone figure out how to approach the subject. After all, she was still confused.

She started the party early and opened the bottle of wine, she needed some with all that was running through her mind.

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Kirsten opened the door to let Carter in. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. Kirsten still felt awkward that it was Carter giving her the kiss and not Sandy, but this time she didn't shy away as much.

She led Carter to the kitchen and offered him some wine, which he gladly accepted. They sat down on the bar stools and Carter filled her in on the day's events of the Newport Group. Then, carefully, Carter said, "Kirsten…you okay? You and Sandy seem to have the perfect marriage. I know that last night was very uncharacteristic of you. Are you and Sandy okay?"

After a brief pause, Kirsten began, "No, we're not okay." Refilling her wine glass, she continued, "A few months ago Sandy's ex-fiancee came back into his life..."

With that, Kirsten poured her heart out to Carter. She told him about Sandy's preoccupation with his ex-fiancee and how hurt she was over the whole ordeal. Carter listened intently and knew all the right words to comfort Kirsten, comparing Sandy to his ex-wife who hurt him after cheating with an ex.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea. You guys certainly don't look like you're having problems."

"Sandy doesn't think we are. He doesn't realize that I'm still hurting over everything. He just expected me to forgive him and move on and for us to go back to being like we were."

"Did you tell him that?" Carter asked.

"No. I just…I met you…and then…I got distracted from the situation at home. Coming to work is a nice way to forget about my problems at home."

"Especially since work included taking a trip to the wine country, eating expensive dinners, drinking lots of wine after working hours."

Kirsten managed a small laugh. "Yeah, we've had a good time." Kirsten looked up at Carter and stared into his eyes.

Before getting caught up in the moment, Carter turned away, getting off the stool and backing up a little, and said, "Kirsten, while I was at work today without you, I've been thinking…"

Kirsten's face turned sour.

"I don't think it's a good idea we work together anymore. I was totally out of line kissing you last night. I should have stopped after I told you how gorgeous you are. As much as I'd like to kiss you, I shouldn't be interfering with your marriage."

Kirsten blushed a little, but continued to stare at Carter somberly.

Carter continued, "No offense, but if I'm being quite honest with you, I think your using me as a scapegoat for your marital problems."

Kirsten interrupted defensively, "Carter, that's not true!"

"It is Kirsten, you may not want to hear it, but I think you're trying to get back at Sandy by spending so much time with me. Come on Kirsten, you're not attracted to me. It's just that while you've been distant from Sandy, I was the one who was there to make you smile these last few weeks."

Kirsten turned her head. For some reason, tears were building up in her eyes. Maybe Carter put the situation into a better, clearer perspective for her.

"Kirsten," Carter said more softly as he gently wiped a tear from her eye, "I love working with you, and as much as it hurts me to leave you, I care about you too much to keep working with you and potentially ruining your relationship with Sandy. You need to talk to him and tell him how you're hurting. You'll work it out." Carter leaned down and placed one last kiss on Kirsten's cheek, and then let himself out, leaving Kirsten speechless and alone in the kitchen, just as she was the night before. She sat down on the bar stool and drank the rest of the bottle of wine. It was going to be another long, long night.

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Kirsten had eventually made her way over to the Cohens' new bar, where she continued the drinking party alone with more wine. In the midst of drinking her 4th glass, the phone rang. "Why does the phone have to be in the kitchen?," she thought to herself as she got off the bar stool and headed for the kitchen. She was a bit woozy after having so many drinks and tripped over her own foot as she took a step. She fell face forward onto the hard, wood floor. The wine glass she was holding shattered onto the floor, cutting her face. She lay on the floor and closed her eyes, the room was spinning and she felt stinging in her right cheek, she just wanted to rest and forgot about the phone for a minute.

She was startled when the phone woke her up. She forgot why she was laying on the floor. As she slowly got up, her right cheek started stinging badly. She looked down at the floor and saw shattered glass and blood. Then it all started coming back to her. By this time the phone had stopped ringing again. Kirsten left the mess on the floor and slowly made her way into the bathroom, noticing a pretty big laceration below her eye that had dried up blood all over her cheek. She quickly cleaned out the cut and held some ice to her face, it hurt badly. She walked into the bedroom to lye down and noticed that her cell phone had 2 voicemails on it. She quickly dialed the number and started to cry, realizing that she probably had missed the boys' phone calls when she was with talking to Carter or when she was drinking away her problems. She felt like a bad, careless mother. Bad enough she was lying to her husband, but missing her kids' phone call because of her own problems? Kirsten felt horrible for that. She was now crying uncontrollably.

The first message was Seth and Ryan, calling to ask her why she didn't answer the house phone. Kirsten figured that must've been when she tried to answer the phone and fell. The second message was Sandy, calling with concern in his voice, saying, "Kirsten, you're starting to worry me, the boys called the house phone and your cell phone, I just tried both, and you're not answering. Please call me back as soon as you get this. If I don't hear from you by 11pm EST, I'm taking a red eye to come home. Please call me. I love you."

Kirsten looked at the time. 7:44pm. She was too drunk and tired to think what time it was in Florida, but she picked up the phone anyway.

"Kirsten! WHERE WERE YOU?" Sandy shouted into the phone.

"I'm sorry, Sandy," she said trying to cover up her crying.

"WHERE WERE YOU?"

"I ran late in a meeting. My phone was off. I'm sorry. Put the boys on, please, I want to talk to them," she said hurriedly. She hated lying about where she was.

"They're out. I told them to get out and have fun. I didn't want them to worry about you like I was," Sandy said snottily.

"Sandy I'm sorry. It's been a rough few days," Kirsten said desperately. "I'll make it up to you."

"You've been acting weird ever since we left for Miami. You okay?"

"I'm fine, just tired. Its getting pretty late for you so I'll let you go. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, sounds good," Sandy said into the phone, although his face showed concern. He was worried about his wife. Something in her voice didn't sound right. He dialed Seth's cell phone. He had to get back home to Kirsten. "Maybe she was lonely by herself and didn't want to admit it so she stayed at work," Sandy thought to himself.

Meanwhile, back in Newport, Kirsten was sitting on the bed, sobbing like a baby. She cried because she was in pain…physical and emotional pain…

She cried for the pain in her cheek.

She cried for Carter leaving because of her.

She cried for lying to Sandy and hurting him.

She cried for her marriage that was falling apart.

And most of all, she cried because she felt like a bad mother for completely forgetting about her kids today.

She longed for more wine, but the trip to the kitchen was way too far for her tired, drunken self, so she grabbed the bottle of wine that had fallen on the floor that morning and drank what was left in it. At least this was a temporary way to drown out her problems.

Let me know what you think!